BD Live Title to Include Shopping Feature in August

[jw]

By Chris Tribbey | Posted: 08 Jul 2009
ctribbey@questex.com


A Blu-ray Disc title in August will be the first to feature an e-commerce application that allows viewers to shop for products in the movie and buy them directly over the Internet via BD Live.

The co-founders of Bright Stage Media, the company that developed the technology, would not share which title from which studio but did say they hope to have all the major studios embrace the technology by year’s end.

“How many times have you seen a product in the film and say, ‘I want that’?” said Randy Malinoff, CEO of That’s It! Media Group and co-founder of Bright Stage. “We now have that answer for the consumer, without them having to search online.”

When enabled, the application, dubbed “Connect, Share and Shop” for the first release, offers viewers in-movie information about products, and if the Blu-ray player is connected to the Internet, to comparison-shop between online retailers. Additionally, consumers can Tweet about their purchases and share the news on social networking sites like Facebook.

“We update the content so every time you put in the disc there are [new items],” said Bright Stage co-founder Brian Johnson, who’s also CEO of B1 Media.

Malinoff said the technology could change the way product placements are done for films.

“There are a lot of added product placement opportunities here in the green-light phase for a film,” he said, explaining that studios might consider ad opportunities long before the Blu-ray release comes out.

A version 2.0 of the application is in the works. It will include more in-movie customization, with entertainment news, trivia and filmographies.

During the high-def format war, Universal Studios Home Entertainment did something similar with e-commerce for the HD DVD release of Evan Almighty in October 2007, allowing viewers to shop for products in the movie while their HD DVD player was connected to the Internet.

sounds exciting however I seldom use BD Live

Heres the link to the Blu-ray.com News